Skills for reference staff

[Linda Hyman]

There has been much discussion on this issue in the field of education.  It
is starting to look like teachers and students will be evaluated and
certified at certain levels of technical ability.  (Wow, what a thought for
librarianship.  Are librarians certifiable?? ha)

Anyway, one place to get further info is the ECTL (Education Council for
Technology in Learning) Homepage
http://www.cde.ca.gov/ftpbranch/retdiv/ed_tech/ectl/.  Here's an
interesting quote from the Connect, Compute, Compete page
(http://www.cde.ca.gov/ftpbranch/retdiv/ccc_task/ccc.htm)

>"Recommendation 3: Integrate technology into the content and performance
>standards that will be used as the basis for setting policies for
>preparing, hiring, evaluating, and promoting teachers."
>
>"The ability of teachers to use technology to promote students'
>acquisition of basic skills and subject-matter content is critical to
>education's success. Accomplishing this objective requires front-end
>preparation, as well as ongoing training opportunities and incentives."

It's hard to say whether the lack of measurable standards has helped or
hindered our profession; but we may soon see similar initiatives in our
profession I'll bet.

>> An interesting issue has surfaced on Cristal-ed, and I'm curious as to how
>> people on this list would respond.  How much technology should a reference
>> person be expected to learn?  The argument of some staff is that they need
>> only be able to use the computer to access material, but anything
>> "mechanical" is not their responsibility.

Linda Woods Hyman
Pacific Bell Education First
Dept. of Educational Technology
San Diego State University
San Diego  CA  92182  (619) 594-4414
e-mail:  lhyman at mail.sdsu.edu
http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired